Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Another Corner and Habitual Indifference

A 9x12 oil on panel of another corner at Bond and First in Brooklyn.

Tony Hiss, in his book In Motion: The Experience of Travel, writes: "Knowing from repeated experience that we can count on the stars to be there and that their continuing presence is not an immediate threat, we begin to think we can say with the same level of confidence that we know what they are. Attention is withdrawn and moves in a different course. Some people know a great deal about stars, others next to nothing. There is always more to find out. But habituation--not noticing something that seems unchanging and harmless--can cloak both knowledge and ignorance with the same mantle of indifference: 'Oh, yes, the stars.' Something we have a word for."